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Hi folks, I started writing a guide to explain how to evolve a beginner/starter build into something more end game and it simply was too big and complicated. Instead I've cooked up this list of some of the most useful general passives for each type of situation, such as build needs more hit, build needs more pen, etc. The focus is for the new player and their survival build. I would love for some proofreading and comments before I finish formatting it all nicely and posting it on the official forums. Thanks!!

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Here are some of the most useful passives in the game, organized as a general shopping list to add whatever you need to your deck. Many of these passives require a certain trigger. If I note that anyone can use it, there are no requirements. If a power says “If applying whatever” it means you have to actually be applying that status effect to get the benefit. If it says “If using whatever” it means you just have to be hitting a target with that status already, whether from yourself or a teammate (like in a dungeon you can assume every target will be weakened because your tank SHOULD be applying exposed). This list ignores the Impaired state as it can only be applied occasionally, and therefore isn’t the kind of every-attack boost most of these abilities are.After each ability’s short description is the total cost in AP necessary to buy that ability starting with 0 points in that weapon tree, so you can see how much you have to invest in a new weapon tree if necessary. You’ll notice that many of the most commonly-recommended abilities turn out to be the cheapest options for what they accomplish. However, there are sometimes some nice, but more expensive, alternatives.

Since this is a general list it omits almost all passives linked to specific subtypes of attacks; there are booster abilities for all those sorts of things you can look up in the ability search pane. I made a few exceptions for frenzy and focus because of their special usefulness.

These abilities are tricky to evaluate. Procs have a 1 second cooldown but it can be tied to the caster in which case it can only function once per second anywhere in combat (Molecular Exploitation); but some passives have the cooldown applied to each affected mob once per second (Sudden Return, Gross Anatomy). If a proc has a % chance to function on hit, such as Fortunate Strike, the chance can be checked each time a hit happens (if an attack multi-hits) until it processes and then goes on cooldown. (Some abilities which hit multiple times only count as 1 hit; but most channeled attacks do seem to treat all or at least most of their hits as individual full hits.) When in doubt, do ask the community about these choices or test them. Still, even a weak extra damage passive is more damage than an empty slot.

Affliction-based

A note about affliction: Affliction itself is generally NOT a good/significant amount of damage though some abilities have specific passives tied to them that do yield moderately strong results. So no general affliction passive is recommended for its own sake. Instead, affliction is primarily valued for the many triggering effects it can enable. However, pairing any affliction--especially the weak but quick cycling Bloodsport which can apply to ALL attacks--along with Gross Anatomy is one of the most solid damage boosting combos in the game and is the cornerstone of one of the official Elite decks for Tokyo.

If using affliction, Fortunate Strike (chance of big bonus damage per hit. On average, markedly more damage than the other similar choices.) [96 AP]

If applying affliction, Salt in the Wound (small damage with each applying hit, but higher than Molecular Exploitation) [47 AP]

If using affliction, Molecular Exploitation (small damage with each hit; Fortunate Strike likely to deal more damage on average over time) [47 AP]

Weakness-based

If using weakened, Gnosis (33% chance of bonus damage) [1AP]

If using weakened, Tenderizing (bonus small damage on hitting) [123 AP]

If applying weakened, Gunsmoke (bonus small damage on apply) [3 AP]

Critical Hit-based

If critting reliably, One in the Chamber (bonus damage on crit) [123 AP]

If using hindered and critting reliably, Damage Control (bonus damageon crit) [75 AP]

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You're using in game terms without explaining them and new players will not know all of them. What's status? What's impaired?

2) It's confusing

Using phrases like "If a power says “If applying whatever” it means you have to actually be applying that status effect to get the benefit" is very confusing. What is whatever in this case? You need to have a real placeholder world for situations like that. Especially if it's shortly followed by "After each ability’s short description is the total cost in AP necessary".

What description? The ingame tooltip? The description in the guide?

Also I'd stick to the same wording in all cases. If you're using the word ability, stick to it. Don't call it "power" shortly after. "Power" might be something new like Augment which a player doesn't know about and will be looking for those mysterious Powers.

3) The list of abils you post there.

They mean nothing. A new player will not know what he needs. He can get all of that from tsw-builder.com simply by clicking one of the drop boxes in that deck builder. He still has to hand pick passives but doesn't know which ones are "good". He may not know if he has a pen deck or a what deck - he's running on random drop talis somehow put together. Some of the abils you post are very sub par and with only 7 slots available your write up doesn't really help to choose the "good" ones.

4) (Some abilities which hit multiple times only count as 1 hit; but most channeled attacks do seem to treat all or at least most of their hits as individual full hits.)

If an abil hits multiple times [ie Bloodline or Dancing Blade] and those hits aren't marked in the tooltip as "additional hits" [ie Call for Eris] then all of those hits are considered Full Hits which can activate passive abilities. You have to remember that each passive can be activated only once per seconds due to it's internal cooldown. That means that Bloodline has 4 chances to activate a passive one time, but Dancing Blade can activate a passive up to 3 times, once per second of it's cast [2 hits + 2 hits +1 hit].

Saying "ask the community" or "test it yourself" in a guide when talking about a general mechanic doesn't give your guide credibility.

5) Direction you should head in.

Imho a write up of the most common "combos" would be more useful than a list like you're making.

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I'm a very new player and I didn't think this was terrible, but it was hard to follow in some parts. I kind of like the way the abilities were separated because it was easier to see what was what--but the problem is that it still didn't give anyone like me (the noobest of noobiest noobs) any real idea of what I should be doing other than randomly trying out abilities.

What I would really love to see as a new player is a SUPER basic explanation for someone who hasn't played any other games before of what all these terms mean....I kill stuff all the time, but I can honestly say I have no clue what the difference is between "afflicted" and "weakened" etc. Maybe I've survived so far on sheer dumb luck or just figuring it out the best I can by trial and error. Oh, and dying. A lot!

I have tried to read forums/guides on these things, but I just find them overwhelming and give up, figuring that if I keep playing I'll eventually figure it out.

So I'd agree with an introduction to explain more, more explanation of terms, and maybe more emphasis on the abilities that a new player can use at the beginning? If your guide is going to be geared to new players, it doesn't make sense to add in a bunch of info on abilities that a new player would not be able to purchase with AP.

Hope this all makes sense. I hesitated to even comment since I'm so not conversant in the language of builds!

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Afflicted: a damage over time ability. When you afflict, you deal a small amount of damage over time. Certain abilities will process (aka proc) off of this state- Clearing the Path, Sword, for instance, if hitting an Afflicted target, increases the pen chance of Clearing the Path. Iron Maiden is another that increases your penetration chance when you penetrate an afflicted target.

There are 'weakened' status, those are Exposed (2% more damage for each stack on the enemy, up to 20% more incoming damage on the enemy); Debilitated (enemy deals 3% less damage, stacks to 10 stacks, 30% max damage reduction); and Corrupted (3% up to 30%, enemy heals/barriers less when corrupted).

Some often used abilities to set those states (passive wise)-- Exposed is given from Intensity, Chaos, only works with Escalation; Breakdown, Chaos, applies a Exposed stack with any attack by a Hammer, Sword, or Chaos attack.

Corrupted is very rarely useful, mostly The Business + Magnum Passive (Pistol).

*****

A useful trick to find an ability or subtype: Press N, right side of your monitor, Ability Search. Enter a keyword. It'll search the entire wheel for things that include that word.

Doing so will find you all abilities that either set a state OR exploit (aka process, or proc) off of hitting an enemy with that status on them.

This isn't an indepth explanation, but does give a few pointers to certain states/what they are/etc. There's subtype attacks-- Blasts, Frenzy, Channeled, Burst, etc, that also can process off of other passives.